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Ship of fools

On the path to Circe’s palace, Odysseus is met by Hermes, who tells him of the moly, the herb that will afford him protection from the sorceress’s spells. In the Homeric text, Hermes hands Odysseus the magical plant. In Simon Armitage’s new version, when the hero asks for it the god snubs him: “I’m not here to lead you by the nose, Odysseus . . . Find it yourself.”

In this version of the Odyssey, a dramatisation by Armitage written for the radio, the human scale is the predominant one, the king of Olympus is envious of human affection, and a mortal hero is expected to pick his own flowers. Armitage hasn’t excised the gods. Athena is as active as ever and Poseidon, although denied a speaking part, is still the agent of most of Odysseus’s tribulations. But the relationship between the hero and the